Hadassah Strike to Continue, May Get Worse

Meeting between employees and management ends with no results. Hadassah employees threaten further strike action.

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Elad Benari, 14/02/14 01:45

Hadassah hospital, closed during strike

Flash 90

The strike at the Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem is expected to continue on Friday and workers are threatening further action as of Sunday.

A meeting on Thursday evening between representatives of the Histadrut labor union, the employees and the Hadassah board of trustees ended with no results.

The Histadrut subsequently announced that Hadassah employees will continue to operate on a Shabbat schedule on Friday as well.

The workers are demanding that their January salaries be paid in full by Sunday, or they will take further strike actions.

The Hadassah strike began at both Hadassah Ein-Kerem and Hadassah Mount Scopus medical centers, as a backlash against the Finance Ministry for stalling in negotiations to expand the hospital's budget. The budget cuts have been hurting patients, according to the staff, and the staff is reeling after a month on half-pay.

The ongoing strike at has already driven several senior members of both Hadassah Ein Kerem and Hadassah Mount Scopus to quit, fed up over the hospital's inability to compensate for missing wages and frustrated over the tedious negotiations.

This week, protests erupted outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, with demonstrators demanding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yael German intervene to end the strike.